At the present time, frozen confections of the type with which the present invention can be used are produced by automatic or semi-automatic machinery in which groups of upwardly opening molds, typically 6 to 24 molds per group, are filled with the desired confection in liquid form. The molds are then passed through a brine bath at low temperature, conveyed by a chain drive mechanism which moves the molds in intermittent fashion. Thus, each group pauses for a portion of each cyle to permit the empty molds to be refilled, sticks to be inserted and the completely frozen confection to be removed at the end of the machine. The overall process as thus described forms no part of the present invention but rather supplies the environment in which the invention is used.
Of present interest in the process is the stick insertion. As will be recognized, there is a point in the brine bath chilling process at which the confection is sufficiently stiff to support an inserted stick but not so hard that insertion problems are created. The brine bath itself is maintained at a substantially constant temperature, so for any predetermined composition of the liquid confection, it is possible to exactly determine a distance from the filling station at which insertion of the sticks should be accomplished. This permits selection of the proper "pause" in the intermittent drive for the insertion step.
However, that distance varies significantly for different confection compositions. The desired insertion station location is therefore variable.
It will also be recognized that if flat sticks are to be used, it is necessary to orient the sticks and, with most mechanical inserters, a stick magazine must be refilled at frequent intervals by an attendant.
Various stick handling and insertion devices have been developed in the past, including those disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. which are listed in numerical order:
1,369,772 -- Becker et al. PA1 1,487,788 -- Lombardo et al. PA1 2,152,214 -- Sattler PA1 2,660,963 -- Covert et al. PA1 2,929,340 -- Topfer PA1 2,953,997 -- Glass PA1 2,998,784 -- Glass PA1 3,221,673 -- Shelly PA1 3,272,152 -- Williams PA1 3,285,199 -- Waite et al. PA1 3,395,652 -- Conti PA1 3,632,245 -- Getman
These patents show a wide variety of devices for making frozen and other confections and for supplying sticks thereto varying from the simple manually operated flat stick inserters such as Sattler and the "rotary" mold devices such as Becker et al. and Covert et al. to the somewhat more complex machines of Glass U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,953,997 and 2,998,784 and Conti. However, none of these are usable or adaptable to meet the needs of the system presently contemplated.